One thing that we learned - back in the days of wallpapering - - a half-height wallpaper goes on really easy ! - ie : wallpaper the bottom & paint the top, or vice versa - maybe a border in between. it also looks quite nice - especially in a small bedroom where the wallpaper pattern tends to take over the room. John T.
I still have the vary nice wallpaper I bought for my little powder room and little half bath, projects I never even started on.
When I was little, my room and my brother's had beautiful wall paper but not really paper. Sanitas I think it was called*** and it was smooth and waterproof and that somehow made it good for children's rooms**. I liked it. What I bought for here was something like that, I think.
What is Sanitas wallpaper? Sanitas was another washable product introduced in 1903. This was an oil-impregnated fabric with a paper backing that could be hung like ordinary wallpaper.Sep 9, 2013
**I guess for when kids write on or throw up on the walls. My brother and I never did either. My mother probably picked out the patterns. They were very pretty. Mine was a yellow, white, and brown plaid and my brother's was mostly white with farms on it with green trees and red something. . No fighting was involved. My father paid someone else to put it up.Aha, you didn't have to write on the walls for earlier wallpaper to be a problem:
The late nineteenth century saw a great rise in sanitary concerns and wallpapers seemed to bear the brunt of this concern due to the fact they could not be cleaned. To help curb this proposed threat to public health, many cities as well as states adopted ordinances prohibiting the use of more than a single layer of wallpaper on the wall at a given time. Before a new paper could be installed, the old paper needed to be scraped off the wall. This became a major issue for the tenement houses in large cities. This practice later became a detriment to historians and homeowners who logically thought the paper installed closest to the wall was the original. [See? More public health laws, and even if the science was wrong, at least they were trying to fix a real health problem. ]
Fortunately, around this time several washable wallcovering options were developed. The first was Lincrusta-Walton, developed in 1877 by the man who invented linoleum. This was a linseed oil-based solid material with a relief surface. It could be left natural, painted and or gilded, and was a beautiful and durable product. Sanitas was another washable product introduced in 1903. This was an oil-impregnated fabric with a paper backing that could be hung like ordinary wallpaper. Sanitas retained the texture of the fabric which was a much desired effect at this time.
***I don't think my parents mentioned the brand name more than 1, 2, at most 3 times, when I was under 10, and still I remember it 70 years later.
Should have read this post before posting my other reply. My and my brother's bedrooms were not small. Interestingly, in a house built in
1925, the bathroom was as big as a medium sized bedroom. The tub, sink and toilet were along the walls and the center was a big area with really no purpose afaict. I think early indoor plumbing used converted bedrooms for bathrooms, and even though this house was always going to have indoor plumbing, the idea that the bathroom could be small had not occurred to people yet.
I will try to take comfort in that.
Of course a leaky fuel oil tank and soil remediation is cheap compared to having one's house blown away by a tornado. Am I nitpicking?
saved the cost of the buldozer - - -
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